By Greg | May 9, 2012

Any prime time hit TV show of the 70′s or 80′s worth their salt faced the inevitable Saturday morning adaption. Everything from Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley to the Dukes of Hazzard got an animated treatment and Charlie’s Angels managed to find it’s way on the Saturday morning line up. While no proper animated Charlie’s Angels show was ever produced (although the 2000′s did see some animated webisodes based on the movies) the influence of the Angels was added to some established Saturday morning properties. 

Hanna Barbara attempted twice in 2 years to emulate Angel magic on Saturday morning with varying results. 

First up was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. In 1969 Hanna Barbera had introduced the Slag Brothers, Rock and Gravel, as characters on its Wacky Races show. 

8 years later they dusted off the character designs and reintroduced a Slag brother as Captain Caveman… the world’s first (and presumably hairiest) superhero. Cavey was joined by The Teen Angels – three Sabrina, Jill, and kelly analogues – who also closely resembled Josie and the Pussycats. Head Angel Dee, like Sabrina, was the brains of the operation and wore a turtleneck. Taffy, the animated Jill, had a Farrah flip, was ditzy and always yelled “Zowie!” Brenda, the Kelly of the group, was also the resident scaredy-cat.

The trio assisted and were assisted by Captain Caveman in solving Scooby Doo-like mysteries. The first and second seasons were packaged as part of Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics while the final season featured Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels in their own half-hour series. The show was created by Ruby Spears and produced by Hanna Barbera. The Angels used neither guns nor martial arts, and had a tendency to scream and run a lot, but the Angel influence could not be ignored and the show was a minor hit.
 

Two years later Hanna Barbera tried again to emulate the Angel form in 1979′s Casper and The Angels, a spin off of the popular Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper was created first as a storybook in 1939 and adapted to movie shorts in 1945. For the next three decades Casper the Friendly Ghost was a staple of Saturday morning and after-school television.

In 1978, Hanna Barbera decided what would be a perfect vehicle for a dead little ghost boy would be to put him in space and add two faux Charlie’s Angels sidekicks. In 1978′s Casper and the Angels (in outer space) the friendly ghost travels to the year 2179 to become a guardian spirit to two intergalactic space cops named Maxie and Minnie. Maxie was surprisingly similar to Dee of Captain Caveman in that she was the leader and brains of the operation. Minnie seems to be an amalgamation of both the other Teen Angels, possessing Brenda’s timidness and Taffy’s ditzyness and even her voice actress (Laurel Page). 

Plots involved totally original fare such as a space circus, space cat burglars, and space diamond smuggling. Surprisingly, the Angel formula mixed with a ghostly guardian Angel of female space cops on jet skis never caught on, and the show was canceled after one season. 

Maybe the reason these two attempts at animating Angel magic never caught on in the late 70′s was the fact that the characters of Sabrina, Jill, Kelly and Kris were not included. The Angels in Captain Caveman were not 3 seasoned, smart, capable detectives – they were 3 semi-competent, often bumbling and needing-to-be-rescued teenagers who hung out with a prehistoric superhero. 

All there was were two brunettes, a blonde in the middle, and the smart one wore the turtleneck. These Angels didn’t fight bad guys, they ran away from them. Casper and the Angels is even more removed from the formula in that there were only 2 “Angels” and they were intergalactic motorcycle cops. It actually felt more like an animated CHiPs in space than an Angel analogue. All prime time properties that become Saturday morning cartoons have to have changes made to them. The changes made to the Angels placed them as second bananas behind supernatural male comedic leads. Playing second banana to powerful men was exactly what Charlie’s Angels was not. So maybe that was the reason they didn’t really work. Or maybe it was the lame execution. Either way, they are here with us on YouTube forever. Watch an episode. Its ten minutes of your life that can not be replaced. 

By Anna | May 1, 2012

This is George! 

He’s 1 year old, and lives in Jamaica. His parents abandoned him because they were too poor to be able to care for him. That story is sad, but unfortunately not unique at all in impoverished countries, and plenty of orphaned kids end up dying of starvation and disease. 

If you hadn’t heard, Cheryl Ladd is a spokesperson for Food For The Poor, a nice nonprofit that provides food, health care, and lots more crucial stuff to the absolute poorest. She did a TV ad asking people to make regular donations to help children in need. So, we are! The Townsend Agency is sponsoring baby George through FFP’s Angels of Hope program. Now he’ll be sure to get the important stuff he needs, like safe water, food, medicine, education, safety and love at an orphanage called the Hanbury Home for Children. (We’ll share updates as he grows up!)

George is our first step, in hopes that you will step up alongside us. Here’s the deal:

We’re calling on you guys – the whole TA community, our readers, fans, and friends – to back us up and help some more kids, one at a time. We’ve set up a fund page for the Townsend Agency on foodforthepoor.org where anyone can make a donation of any amount. These donations will go toward a particular child whom FFP features each month, selected by greatest need. We’ll show you these children so you can see the real faces that your money is helping. (Join us on facebook here if we aren’t already friends – that’s where we’ll introduce the kids and let you know how things are going.)

GOAL

We pay $35 a month for George, so it would be nice to raise $35 a month for the other children as well. All told, it’d be awesome to give a nice, round figure like $1,000. But, baby steps.

HOW MUCH SHOULD I GIVE?

If you’re thinking about giving – thanks – and here’s what I want you to realize about value of your money in their hands. The average American family of 4 is estimated to spend near $1,000 a month on food. FFTP can feed a family of 4 for $12 a month. That’s a dime per person per day. That means for just five bucks (the minimum they’ll process) you can feed our poor hungry kid for 50 days. Unless you’re really into ramen noodles, this probably doesn’t resemble your budget. Point being, don’t feel like it’d take a bajillion dollars to make a dent.

We have well over a thousand friends on our various social networks, and I don’t know how many more readers. We’re some of the most privileged people on Earth, and I know there are 7 of us who can spare $5 in any given month. It’s a modest goal, and between so many of us, it should be no big hurdle at all – especially when it’s life-changing for others.

FINE, WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?

Just put in your payment stuff and click a button. No signup, accounts or passwords, and no promises to us. We aren’t gonna send you guilt-trip emails, or try to get you to give regularly. This is the internet version of passing around a tin can for spare change. Just toss something in when you can, because you’re a cool, kind-hearted, wonderful human being. Or if you’re a horrible person, you could still do it because your favorite Angel said to.

And yeah, I know, you’ve heard this pitch before. We’ve all changed the channel on the sad children commercial. Gee, you’d like to help, but but but. That’s why it’s cool that this is about as easy as it can possibly be. 

We love having a community that shares jokes with us, and we hope you’ll share in this more important side of the Townsend Agency as well. Let’s be a team (just like the Supremes). Thanks for reading!

You can get to our fund page any time via this link, or under “Be An Angel” on our site menu, or through our new Facebook app. 

100% of donations to our fund page go straight to Food For The Poor. This money doesn’t even pass through our hands, nor do we take a cut, nor can we see any of your secret payment information. FFTP will email you a receipt (it’s tax-deductible). Questions? Ask us at charlie@charliesangels.org or facebook any time.

By Anna and Greg | March 27, 2012

Lots of episodes end with two Angels rushing to rescue the third, but what really earns an Angel lots of points in our book is when she owns the bad guy(s) all by herself. Here are, in our humble opinion, the 10 best self-rescues on Charlie’s Angels.

10.  Sabrina in Terror on Skis

It’s so Sabrina to just sorta leave a hostage situation. Held at gunpoint in a remote shack somewhere on the Vail ski slopes, the Smart One disarms her captor mentally rather than physically, simply talking him out of the cause to which his family is dedicated. While he still has the gun pointed at her back, she calmly picks up the phone, calls the other Angels, and then walks out. Action? Zero. Balls? Lots. (Mere minutes later, she steals a snowmobile and uses it to kill that guy’s dad. No bearing on the rescue really, but still, wow.)

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 1, sorta
BAD GUY ARMED: Yes
BAD GUY DISARMED: No
SEALED ROOM: Yes
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Death(?)
TOTAL SCORE: 1

9.  Kris in Homes $weet Homes

Barry Kingsbrook drugs Kris and leaves her to boil to death in his hot tub. Oh wait, she’s only pretending to be drugged. She catches the real estate king off-guard and wages war using anything in the room – hurling liquor bottles, knocking him down with barbells, and finally Angel Flipping him into his own hot tub. After pausing to toss off a one-liner, she lets in Bosley, Tiffany and Kelly, who’ve been pounding on the locked door all this time. 

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 1
BAD GUY ARMED: No
SEALED ROOM: Yes
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Probably death
TOTAL SCORE: 2

8.  Kris in Game, Set, Death

She’s alone in the ladies’ locker room when an armed thug enters and seals off the door. As he creeps around trying to find her, she tips over rows of lockers to smash him, and then climbs over the top to get away. She then lets in her armed cohorts, who’ve been pounding on the door all this time.

It’s mid-Season 2 and Kris’ fight skills aren’t completely developed yet – here’s a pretty good example of her using her wits and senses a little more than brawn. This is one of few self-rescues where the Angel owns a bad guy without ever touching him. We’d have given her more points for a direct beatdown, but it’s also kinda cool to avoid getting your hands dirty if you don’t have to.

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 1
BAD GUY ARMED: Yes
BAD GUY DISARMED: No
SEALED ROOM: Yes
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Death
TOTAL SCORE: 3

7.  Kelly in Terror on Ward One

Similar scenario to the previous one. Kelly’s stuck in a locked office, being ordered at gunpoint to take a bunch of pills. Instead she throws the pills in the bad guy’s (girl’s) face and beats the gun out of her hand. A good long struggle does the office a lot more damage than her opponent, until some odd frontward variation of the Angel Flip renders the evil nurse unconscious. She lets in Jill, who’s been pounding on the locked door all this time. The small, empty office provides virtually no hiding place or defense, and a hands-on beatdown is always worth more points.
 

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 1
BAD GUY ARMED: Yes 
BAD GUY DISARMED: Yes
SEALED ROOM: Yes
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Death
TOTAL SCORE: 4

6.  Munroes in Angel in a Box

A kidnapped Jill and Kris are trapped in a car with the vengeful Karazna father and a thug who’s hailing bullets out the window at the pursuing Pinto. With an Angel Elbow apiece, they stun their kidnappers and then bail out of the car in the middle of a high-speed chase/shootout. Having dared to cross the Munroe clan, the bad guy is dead within minutes. (They didn’t do it, but it’s still kind of a bonus.) The score still amounts to only one bad guy owned apiece, but it’s evenly-matched enough to qualify as a tandem self-rescue, which is about as rare and cool as the sisters hanging out at all. 

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 2 (1 apiece)
BAD GUYS ARMED: Yes, both
BAD GUYS DISARMED: No
SEALED ROOM: Yes
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Death for Kris, possibly also Jill
TOTAL SCORE: 5

5.  Kris in Pom Pom Angels

Threats of cults and death seem to mildly displease Kris, but once Anne Francis approaches with a knife to cut off her hair, that’s it – Evil Honey West is no match for an Angel Flip. Kris then proceeds to headbutt the cult leader into his own stand of ceremonial candles, setting the place on fire. 

Sabrina and Kelly did arrive for backup at the end, however upwards of 80% of the rescue was self-handled, and the qualifier is whether Kris could have escaped fully even if they hadn’t shown. There was nothing to suggest there was anything more than a deadbolt sealing the door, which Kris could have simply unlocked from the inside. It sounded like the girls were kept there more on the honor system, anyway, having been warned that all the others would be killed if they escaped. Of course no Angel is just going to run away and doom the other hostages. (Maybe Julie.) Kris actually extended her beatdown to give the girls more time to shuffle out of the building – the bad guy was just trying to stand up when she kicked his ass (literally) again into more candles. It kinda gave the impression that she would have stayed all night re-kicking and re-re-kicking their asses.

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 2, repeatedly
BAD GUYS ARMED: Knife
BAD GUY DISARMED: Yes
SEALED ROOM: Yes
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Anne Heche haircut
TOTAL POINTS: 5

4.  Kris in Angel on my Mind

Mental difficulties somehow only add to the Angels’ fighting ability. Three punks approach amnesiac Kris on the beach intending to steal her purse, but instead get their asses kicked in short order and flee for their lives.

It’s not like the area was secluded – in fact that old man was standing right there watching – but she still received no help and so the situation remained entirely self-contained. There were no weapons involved until she pulled a gun at the end, but she was still outnumbered and out of her mind. Not to mention it’s one of the finest multiple-opponent battles of the entire series.

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 3
BAD GUYS ARMED: No
SEALED ROOM: No
MENTALLY SOUND: No
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Loss of new purse
TOTAL SCORE: 4 

3.  Julie in Angel in Hiding

Three armed men try to force Julie into a car, but she is having none of it, and disperses them all with a kick. After dodging some shots, she clings to the roof of the bad guy’s car while he speeds around the parking garage. When he finally crashes through a tollbooth thing, she’s thrown to the pavement, and he gets out to shoot her. Julie grabs a board from the ground and breaks it over the bad guy’s head, takes away his gun and holds him up with it. Sheesh!
 

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 2
BAD GUYS ARMED: Yes, both
BAD GUYS DISARMED: Yes
SEALED ROOM: No
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Probably death
TOTAL SCORE: 5

2.  Kris in Winning Is For Losers

Kris’ peaceful stroll with old pal Jamie Lee Curtis suddenly turns into an Indiana Jones movie when a sabotaged footbridge collapses, dropping them both into alligator-infested waters. Although there’s nothing visibly wrong with Jamie Lee, her leg seems to be hurt or stuck so she stays on the bridge, screaming helpful things like “Watch out!” while Kris gets attacked by alligators. When her friend Bill arrives on the scene, he helps Jamie Lee (who’s already relatively safe) and then sits down to comfort her while Kris is still being attacked by alligators! The wrestling comes to some vague conclusion and she climbs out of the water on her own. Points are difficult to quantify in the case of an Angel wrestling alligators, but some major honorary bonus is definitely in order. The restraint she shows by not slapping that guy, and health risks she takes from being submerged that nasty-looking water are also worth kudos, if you ask us. 

# GATORS OWNED: 2 or 3 (hard to tell from stock footage)
SEALED ROOM: No
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: Death or loss of limbs
TOTAL SCORE: ???

1.  Tiffany in Angels on Campus

Best self-rescue ever. A drugged-up and tied-up Tiffany frees herself, jumps her evil ex-house mother, and throws her into the other armed bad guy, knocking them both down like a perfectly bowled strike. After taking away his gun and holding them at bay, two more bad guys enter and get the drop on her, forcing her to toss the gun. Five seconds later she gets the drop back on all of them, owning the armed thug from clear across the room by throwing a telephone at him, kicks another dude in the face, and gets her gun back, re-owning everyone in the room. Kelly, Kris and Bosley aren’t impressed enough when they burst in afterwards.

Adding to all this, Tiffany also rescued herself earlier in the episode when she was pursued by a dart-wielding henchman in the locker room.  The whole episode is just a series of self-rescues, including Shelley Hack self-rescuing her own character. Done!

# BAD GUYS OWNED: 4
BAD GUYS ARMED: Yes (2)
BAD GUYS DISARMED: Yes
SEALED ROOM: Yes
MENTALLY SOUND: Probably still woozy
CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE: White slavery with a chance of death
TOTAL SCORE: 9

Misspelling of Angels’ names is a widespread problem, but a fairly understandable one – the show itself didn’t bother to spell its own characters’ or actors’ names correctly all the time, either. We would like to try to clear up this confusion. Gather ’round for a quick lesson!

(Click to enlarge)